Haruki Murakami as an Unrealistic Dreamer

I’ve been feeling uneasy as memories are stirred up on the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima triple disaster. I’ve been reading news and tweets all over the place about the after effects of radiation that continue to show up around the planet. After saturating myself with “facts” and opinions, I realized what I really needed was the perspective of an artist who looks beneath the surface of things, who observes life from

the eye of the heart. So I came across Haruki Murakami‘s acceptance speech on receiving the Catalunya International Prize last summer. It’s one of the most compelling speeches on one of the most horrifying topics I could ever dream of reading. Murakami is on my “to read” list, but now I need to read him more than ever. You can find a translated copy of his speech here.

One commenter wrote that “unrealistic dreamers” should rule the world but that will probably never happen. I agree. Not as long as malignant narcissists keep their iron grip on things. As a writer myself, I understand the ethical imperative to use my art to help raise the level of human consciousness on this planet, even if the results are only microscopic. Microscopic is better than zero.